Despite fence, protest goes on

Oak Ridge police officers arrested three anti-nuclear protesters on Saturday after they reportedly impeded the flow of traffic along Scarboro Road.

by Beverly Majors/Staff

Oak Ridge police officers arrested three anti-nuclear protesters on Saturday after they reportedly impeded the flow of traffic along Scarboro Road.

Charged in the latest peace protest were 65-year-old William Ramsey of Asheville, N.C.; Konomu Utsumi, a 60-year-old Buddhist monk, of Atlanta; and 71-year-old Laurence Coleman of Knoxville. They were all taken to the Anderson County jail, but later released on bond.

They were among nearly 100 Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance members and other activists who marched from A.K. Bissell Park Saturday morning to the Bear Creek Road area and the entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex as part of their planned annual spring demonstration.

Because of a new temporary fence at Y-12, the peace activists assembled across the street from Bear Creek Road.

Saturday’s demonstration was in protest of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s construction of a new multibillion-dollar Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) at Y-12 which, according to NNSA spokesman Steven Wyatt, is “necessary to ensure the continued viability of this mission and to provide fuel for the U.S. Navy’s submarines and aircraft carriers.”

“The Y-12 National Security Complex is responsible for providing the unique manufacturing capability necessary to ensure that the United States maintains a safe and effective nuclear deterrent,” he stated. “As we continue to dismantle nuclear weapons no longer needed, the new UPF will also serve an integral role in NNSA’s commitment to dismantle and process nuclear material from these weapons for use today in peacetime missions, such as fueling our next generation commercial power reactors or in research reactors for medical isotope production to aide in the treatment and fight against cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.”

Wyatt said the core of the nation’s uranium operations for nearly 70 years, has been in the original World War II-era building known as 9212 at the Y-12.

“This facility cannot and will not ever be a modern nuclear facility,” Wyatt said. The need and urgency for a new uranium processing facility for our nation is obvious to anyone working or visiting the existing WWII facility.”

Wyatt said the building’s aging infrastructure and equipment are increasingly fragile to maintain and obtaining replacement parts for electrical, ventilation, fire-protection and other systems is a challenge.

“UPF will be significantly safer than 9212 — both for the public and for Y-12 workers,” Wyatt said. “Unlike 9212, UPF will be built to modern nuclear safety standards, including earthquake resistance, ventilation systems that contain and filter all air released from UPF and modern, nuclear-qualified fire protection systems. UPF will also improve the site’s security posture and significantly reduce the size of the high-security protected area.”

As part of the security initiative at Y-12, the NNSA last week put up a new fence intended to deter trespassing. The temporary fence, which is made up of barricades locked together, caused the activist groups to file a civil rights complaint in U.S. District Court. The fence, they stated in the complaint, denied them their First Amendment right to freedom of speech and the right to assemble because it took away their usual spot in front of the Y-12 plant entrance sign.

Protests and vigils had been held on the grassy area in front of the Y-12 entrance sign for more than 25 years. Activists have carried out acts of civil disobedience in the past and have been arrested for trespassing and blocking the entrance into the weapons facility in the past.

The fence is the latest in a series of measures taken in the wake of last July’s security breach by three Transform Now Plowshares activists. Records indicate at least four other incidents of security-related breaches have happened since Michael Walli, Megan Rice and Greg Boertje-Obed cut though fences and made their way to the Highly-Enriched Uranium Manufacturing Facility (HEUMF).

A trial in federal court for the three protesters — 83-year-old Rice; 56-year-old Boertje-Obed; and 64-year-old Walli is set to begin on May 7.